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Politics |
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 Mamata
Banerjee makes history: Trinamool Congress chief,
Mamata Banerjee, ended the 34-year uninterrupted rule of the
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front in West
Bengal in the Assembly elections in May and became its first
woman Chief Minister. |
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Protest in Russia:
More than 50,000 people came out on the streets protesting the
alleged rigging of December 4 polls, casting doubts about
Putin's ability to get himself elected once again as president
in January. |
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The Arab Spring:
Sidi Bouzid, the Tunisian town, where a 26 year-old street
vendor set himself ablaze in December 2010 and died on January
4, started a rebellion toppling governments that rocked the Arab
world and led to a year of global revolt networked via social
media. |
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 Tunisia:
Tunisian President, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, ceded power and
fled the country to Saudi Arabia on January 15, after popular
protests. In the elections held towards the end of the year, the
Islamist parties won the maximum seats. |
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Egypt: In
Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, the Egyptian
Revolution began on January 25, at the Tahrir Square, Cairo, and
culminated in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on
February 11 and transfer of power to the Supreme Military
Council. Egypt held its first phase of democratic elections on
November 27, but protests and clashes with the security forces
continue at Tahrir Square against the military's dubious
commitment to real democracy. Islamist parties are in the lead
in the elections held so far. |
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The Libyan civil
war: Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was captured from
a sewage ditch and killed on October 20, in Sirt. The National
Transitional Council forces took control of the city ending the
civil war, which had drifted on for months. |
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 Yemen:
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, after months of tribal
insurrections, an Islamist insurgency and defections of key
military men, agreed on November 2 to transfer power to the
vice-president, which will end his rule of more than 30 years.
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Syria:
The Arab Spring has been the most bitter in Syria so far. Syrian
President Bashar Assad's regime has desperately clung to power,
confronting protesters every week with tanks and rocket fire.
The UN estimates that about 5000 have been slain since March.
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Bahraini uprising:
On March 15, the Sunni king of Bahrain declared a state of
emergency following weeks of protests by the majority Shia
population of the island kingdom. The unrest was suppressed with
the help of Saudi forces. |
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Occupy Wall Street
protests: The movement started on September 17, 2011
in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street
financial district. The protests are against bail-outs of big
banks and corporations with tax-payers'money. |
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UK riots:
Between August 6 and 10 widespread rioting, looting, violence
and anarchy left a trail of destruction and death in London and
other cities and towns of England. |
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 Jasmine
phobia in China: In April, police arrested Ai Weiwei,
a well known artist who angered authorities with his involvement
in some sensitive activist campaigns. The Hongkong based Chinese
Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said it had documented the
criminal detention of at least 38 dissidents and activists while
16 others were missing after being taken away. |
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French court
convicts Chirac: Former French president Jacques
Chirac was convicted of corruption and given a two year jail
sentence on December 15, becoming France's first ex-president to
be convicted for his crimes. |
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French Legislation
bans burqa: On April 11, France banned the wearing of
full veils in public, becoming the first European nation to
impose the restriction. |
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A new republic of
South Sudan is born: On July 9, after more than 50
years of struggle, the Republic of South Sudan became an
independent nation and Africa's 54th state. |
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Dominique
Strauss-Kahn accused of sexual assault and rape:
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique
Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York in May, on charges of
sexual assault and attempted rape and relieved of his job. He
was acquitted later for want of sufficient evidence. |
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End of Iraq war:
On December 16, Iraq took control of the last US military base
in the country, a day after US forces formally marked the end of
their mission in Iraq. |
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First female Prime
Minister of Thailand: The Pheu Thai (PT) party won a
clear majority in Thailand's elections and Yingluck Shinawatra
became the first female Prime Minister of Thailand in July.
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Self-immolations of
Tibetan monks: The Dalai Lama blamed “cultural
genocide” for a wave of self-immolations among monks and nuns in
ethnic Tibetan parts of Sichuan. At least eight Tibetan monks,
two of them teenagers, torched themselves this year to protest
Chinese rule. |
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 'Iron
Lady' of Manipur: On November 5, Irom Sharmila, the
'Iron Lady' of Manipur completed 11 years of her hunger strike
against the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). |
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Anna Hazare and Jan
lokpal Bill: Social activist from Maharashtra, Anna
Hazare, shot into national limelight with his fasts to fight
against corruption, demanding the enactment of a Jan Lokpal
Bill. |
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Business &
Economy |
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Slowdown in global
trade: Trade growth slowed in almost every major
economy in the third quarter.
Industrialised G7 countries and the Brics Brazil, Russia, India
and China saw a 1per cent decline in imports compared to a 4.6
per cent increase in the second quarter. China slowed to 3.2 per
cent in the third quarter, from more than 10 per cent three
months earlier.
Japan saw a strong rise in trade, a bounce-back from the steep
decline earlier in the year. |
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US debt crisis:
Standard & Poor's withdrew the triple A rating the US held for
70 years and downgraded long-term US debt to AA+. Consequently
global stocks lost USD 7.6 trillion between August 5 and August
12. |
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Europe's financial
crisis: In Greece, a proposed IMF and European
bailout package mandated crippling budget cuts and other
austerity measures. In response, tens of thousands took to the
streets. In Spain similar anti-austerity demonstrations rocked
Madrid's iconic Puerta del Sol square, for weeks. The
governments of both countries fell and the Prime Ministers
departed. The threat of fiscal contagion spread to Italy, the
euro zone's third biggest economy, and forced the departure of
controversial Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In March Moody's
downgraded Portugal's sovereign debt rating from A1 to A3. By
the end of the year, the European Union was busy putting
together a trillion euro rescue package to sustain the euro-zone.
Germany and France proposed changes to EU treaties to improve
governance of the euro-zone. |
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 WTO
officially accepts Russian membership: Russia secured
the final approval to join the World Trade Organisation after a
record of trying for a membership for 18 years. It was the last
major economy outside the trade club. |
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Famine in Africa:
This year saw a terrible drought the worst in more than 60
years. Hundreds of thousands of starving Somalis fled to refugee
camps on the Kenyan border. The death toll from the famine is
estimated to be in tens of thousands. |
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Indian firm in
Kazakh gasfield: In April, India opened its
hydro-carbon account with Kazakhstan with ONGC Videsh Ltd.
securing a 25 per cent stake in a Caspian Sea exploration block. |
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Indian Economy
slowing down. Manufacturing sector grew merely by 5.4 per cent
in April-September against 8.8 per cent last year. |
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Terror |
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 Osama
Bin Laden killed: On May 1, al-Qaeda's Osama bin
Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the
FBI's most wanted man was killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The
raid was carried out by a crack unit of US Navy SEALs. |
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Serial blasts in
Mumbai: Seven bombs went off in three Mumbai market
areas on July 13, killing 26 and injuring 130. |
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Bomb blast in Delhi:
On September 7, a powerful bomb exploded outside the Delhi High
Court killing 15 and injuring 65. |
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ULFA signs peace
pact: In September the Centre and the Assam
government signed a tripartite pact with the United Liberation
Front of Asom (Ulfa) to end all operations against the militant
outfit. |
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Moscow bombing:
On January 24, at least 35 died and 180 injured in a bombing at
Moscow's Domodedovo airport. |
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Terror in Norway:
For the first time ever, on July 22, Norway was hit by twin
terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted
government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a
massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya. |
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Natural
Calamities |
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 Japanese
earthquake and tsunami: On March 11, an earthquake
measuring 9.0 in magnitude struck 130 km (80 miles) east of
Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people.
This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in
history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level
7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale at the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. |
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Turkish earthquake:
A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked eastern Turkey near
the city of Van, killing over 582 people, and damaging about
2,200 buildings, on October 23. |
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Brazilian mudslides:
Torrential rains triggered mudslides that smashed through towns
around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January, killing over 600
people. |
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Australia floods:
Without warning a massive deluge overwhelmed Toowoomba near
Brisbane. Flood waters swallowed an area the size of France and
Germany combined, in early January. |
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Floods in Pakistan:
Devastating floods left 434 dead in Pakistan, in September. The
government said more than eight million people, mostly in Sindh
province in the south, had been affected. |
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Deadly Bangkok
floods: In a severe monsoon season Thailand's October
floods left more than 370 dead, with 58 of the country's 77
provinces affected. |
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Science and
Environment |
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Global population:
On October 31 (date selected by the UN as the symbolic date) the
global population reached seven billion. |
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 Durban
Conference on climate change: The 17th Conference of
the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came to an end on December 9, at
Durban, South Africa. Governments agreed to a second commitment
period for the Kyoto Protocol until the year 2017 and agreed to
implement the package to support developing nations beginning
2012, as agreed in 2010 conference. The package consists of the
Green Climate Fund, an Adaptation Committee, and a Technology
Mechanism. Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. |
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First signs of 'God
Particle': Scientists at the Cern research centre
found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle which is
believed to have played a key role in the creation of the
universe. |
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Married |
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Prince William weds
Kate Middleton: On April 29, Prince William married
Kate Middleton. Post-marriage, they took on the title of Duke
and Duchess of Cambridge. |
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Bhutan's King Jigme
weds Jetsun Pema: Bhutan's 31 year old king Jigme
Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk married Jetsun Pema, on October 13. |
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McCartney weds
American heiress: Former Beatle Paul McCartney
married for the third time, on October 9, American heiress Nancy
Shevel. |
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Varun Gandhi weds
Yamini Roy Chowdhury: On March 5, late Indira
Gandhi's grandson, Varun Gandhi, married Yamini Roy Chowdhury. |
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Sports |
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Cricket
World Cup: On April 2, India
bagged the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 title, after 28 years,
with a six wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fantastic final
at Mumbai. |
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One-Day-International (ODI): Virender Sehwag gave a
record breaking performance in Indore against West Indies, in
December. His startling 219 against West Indies makes him one of
the best one-day batsmen since the format emerged 41 years ago. |
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Zero win record:
In September's humiliating tour of England, for the first time
ever, India failed to win a single game in a bilateral series
involving Tests and limited-overs matches. |
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Spot fixing scam:
Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers
Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, and their agent Mazhar Majeed,
were handed prison terms by a British court on November 3 for
taking bribes to fix a Test match against England in 2010.
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Hockey
India beat Pakistan to lift the Asian
Champions Trophy: On September 11, India beat
Pakistan to win the Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos (China). |
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Tennis
French Open (June 5): Li Na,
from China, won the French Open women's championship to become
the first player (male or female) from Asia to win a Grand Slam
singles crown. Rafael Nadal, of Spain, won the men's crown for
the sixth time. |
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Women's World Cup:
Japan beat US to become the first Asian nation to win the Fifa
Women's World Cup, in July. |
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Marathon:
Fauja Singh, a 100 year old Briton, became the world's oldest
marathon runner after finishing a race in Canada, in October. |
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Died |
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Sri Sathya Sai Baba:
Spiritual Guru of millions at home and abroad, Bhagwan Sri
Sathya Sai Baba breathed his last on April 24, at Puttaparthi,
Andhra Pradesh at the age of 85. |
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Kim Jong Il:
North Korea's leader Kim Jong II passed away on December 17 at
the age of 69. |
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Bhupen Hazarika:
Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner Bhupen Hazarika passed away on
November 5, at the age of 86. |
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Dev Anand:
Dev Anand, who ruled the hearts of millions of film enthusiasts
for over six decades, passed away on December 3, at the age of
88. |
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Shammi Kapoor:
Bollywood legend, Shamsher Raj Kapoor, better known as Shammi
Kapoor passed away on August 14, at the age of 79. |
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Jagjit Singh:
Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh passed away on October 10, at the
age of 70. |
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Har Gobind Khorana:
1968 winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, Har Gobind Khorana
passed away on November 9, at the age of 89. |
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Steve Jobs:
The co-founder and chairman of Apple Inc. and one of the
century's greatest business leaders died on October 5, 2011, at
56 leaving behind a legacy of innovation and world-changing
products. |
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Dame Elizabeth
Taylor: Legendary Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor
passed away on March 23, at the age of 79. She was bestowed the
high British honour of 'Dame' in 1999. · |
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